It’s pretty rare for me to shirk my duty as ranter-in-chief, but with the revision of the U.S. health care system under such debate, I thought it would be my duty to let readers know more about what’s going on with the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. The NOMC, like many other non-profits, is experiencing severe financial problems. I can’t say enough good things about what the clinic has done for the music community. I recently received an email from Bethany Bultman, who is the mover and shaker behind the clinic, and I wanted to share it with you.
“Dear Jan: I wanted to follow up as it will be really helpful if you can let the music community know the facts. The most important thing to convey to musicians and tradition bearers is that they are not helping the NOMC out by not going to the clinic! One of the woes we suffer is that our patients wait to come in until their condition is life-threatening. Our goal is to keep music alive!
For the first time in three years, the board of the New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation (NOMAF) finds itself with some very difficult choices to make: do we provide gig funding to St. Joseph’s Rebuild Center so they can sponsor monthly musical events and an elderly performer can use his performance fee to pay his car note? Or do we pay for his ongoing glaucoma care so he can read his music? Or do we help pay for his dental care so he can continue to play his trumpet?
Three years ago, NOMC became one of 11 recipients of federal funding for the uninsured citizens of New Orleans as part of the Primary Care Access and Stabilization Grant (PCASG). Our allocation was more than $2 million over three years, which allowed us to become the medical home for more than 1,600 musicians, tradition bearers and their families. As we begin the last year of this federal grant, reduced funding dictates that we must diminish our services even though the needs of our patients are increasing. We have less than $500,000 to cover all medical costs for our patients for the next 14 months. (Consider that each hand surgery performed on a musician costs us $4,000 and we have huge chemo bills for several patients.)
During the first two years of the grant, we utilized 98 percent of all private donations we received to put money in the musicians’ pockets via our NOMAF Gig Fund. Now our private donations have slowed to a trickle.
Our NOMAF board vowed to insure the future viability of NOMC’s comprehensive medical services by cutting back many of our non-primary care programs. Even with more than $1 million worth of donated and discounted medical services, free clinic space and electronic medical records donated by LSUHN, and our executive staff and our medical director all working pro bono, the only things left to cut back are some of our non-essential services, discontinue all our publications, and reduce the Gig Fund.
Your readers know that musicians are the backbone of our tourism industry, yet our partner Sweet Home New Orleans’ research reveals that most of them must survive on less than $12,000 a year. They are uninsured and often suffer from multiple chronic conditions. So how do we keep them alive?
Here are the facts:
New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic patients served:
987 musicians served September 21, 2007- March 20, 2008
1355 musicians served March 21, 2008- September 20, 2008
1683 musicians served September 21, 2008- March 20, 2009
63 percent are male; 37 percent are female
78 percent have been employed as a musician in New Orleans for more than 11 years
44 percent are 50-65 years old
36 percent are 31-49 years old
12 percent are under 30
8 percent are 66-100 years old
NOMC’s top diagnoses: hypertension, depression and diabetes.
83 percent of all NOMC patients receive medication for a chronic condition. They also suffer from occupational maladies including tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, hearing loss, recurring upper respiratory problems (due to the smokefilled clubs in which they work), irregular sleep patterns and performance anxiety.
According to our recent S.W.O.T. analysis we know the following:
67 percent of NOMC patients did not have a regular health provider before they became a NOMC patient.
56 percent of these went to the ER when sick and did not seek follow-up care.
40 percent of our patients smoked before Katrina and today, with the encouragement of the NOMC, this number has dropped to 26 percent.
The dirty little secret is that we receive more donations from a small Rotary Club in Northern Germany than all private donations from New Orleanians combined. Since our founding in 1998, the NOMC remains the only such comprehensive medical clinic in the U.S.A. Maybe it is “shame on us” for not tooting our own horns but frankly, the care and well-being of our musicians is more than a full-time job, and there are not enough hours in the day to raise money and run the clinic.
For the NOMC to survive the next five years, we must make a leap of faith that local banks, businesses and private foundations are going to begin viewing our local musicians as a natural resource that must be protected. In the meantime, our board and staff are expanding our network of pro bono providers and are writing grants night and day. Please help us prevent ‘death by lifestyle’ and keep the music alive.”
I would urge anyone who is interested in the health and viability of the New Orleans musicians’ community to donate to the NOMC by logging on to NOMAF.org.
